Stock futures indicate slightly higher open for Wall Street

By IBT Staff Reporter01/06/11 AT 5:56 AM

Stock index futures indicated a slightly higher open for Wall Street on Thursday, the day after it reversed losses to close in positive territory following data on jobs creation that suggested the world's biggest economy was recovering strongly.

At 0932 GMT (4:32 a.m. ET), futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all up 0.1 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,148.41 points, near the highest since September 2008, with ENI among the gainers as crude prices hovered around $90.

The weekly initial jobless claims are released hard on the heels of an ADP report showing private employers added a surprising 297,000 jobs in December. The jobless figures are expected to show a bounce that would offset some of last week's decline. A poll of 20 economists by Reuters saw an increase to 400,000 from 388,000 the week before.

U.S. retailers should post another month of strong sales gains for December, capping their best holiday season since 2007, although the risk of a blizzard-induced drop-off at the end of the month is high. Chains such as J.C. Penney and Abercrombie & Fitch will report same-store sales numbers.

Shares in BP and Transocean , up 2.2 and 3.1 percent respectively, shrugged off a scathing report from a U.S. Presidential panel which blamed the United States' worst ever oil spill on risky decisions the companies made.

Qatar's oil minister said on Thursday that OPEC will meet before its scheduled date in June if the market falls short on supplies.

Monster Worldwide Inc's A monthly gauge of online labor demand in the United States in December edged down from the previous month, but was 13 percent above the reading from a year ago.

The creation of three times as many private-sector jobs as expected turned Wall Street's early losses into gains on Wednesday, extending a rally investors worried had come too far too fast.